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Police and Law Enforcement

New PSA advises arrest subjects to 'Comply Now, Complain Later'

'Resistance is a threat, real or perceived, to the officer,' said National Police Association spokesperson Betsy Brantner Smith

By Michael Ruiz Fox News
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A new public service announcement from the National Police Association is urging people who believe they are being wrongly arrested to "Comply Now, Complain Later" in an effort to reduce police use-of-force risks.

"Use of force is always ugly," Seattle Police Officers Guild President Mike Solan says in the video. "No one likes it, especially police officers."

He continues:

"Use of force is an officer’s last option. Most incidents can be avoided by not resisting arrest."

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The safe alternative is to seek legal remedy after the encounter itself.

The one-minute video launched on July 1 and contains graphic bodycam video from numerous incidents in which suspects resisted arrest or attacked officers.

GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING:

By complying with lawful orders, even if the subject believes they are being arrested without good reason, suspects, the public and police officers are safer, according to the NPA.

"If someone feels they are being stopped or arrested unlawfully, they are creating an incredibly unsafe situation by resisting," Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith (ret.), spokesperson for the NPA, told Fox News Tuesday. 

She pointed to a string of high-profile, deadly police-involved encounters in the past year and two months, which all involved an element of resisting arrest or failing to respond to a lawful order, including the deaths of George Floyd, Ma’Khia Bryant, Rayshard Brooks and Daunte Wright.

Police bodycam video shows 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant swinging a knife moments before an officer fatally shot her in Ohio.

Police bodycam video shows 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant swinging a knife moments before an officer fatally shot her in Ohio. (Columbus Police Department)

In Bryant's case, the teen rushed two other females with a knife in front of a responding police officer, who fatally shot her as she ignored commands to stand down and raised the blade toward a woman she'd pinned against the side of a car. Bryant's father also appeared on video kicking one of the victims at the scene.

"Adults who truly care about the young people in their lives will teach them to present as little a threat as possible to law enforcement officers," Smith said. "Teaching young people, especially people of color, that police officers are ‘racist’ and always a ‘danger’ to them does nothing but exacerbate the difficulties between the public and the police."

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Ed Mireles, a use of force expert and former FBI special agent who survived one of the bureau’s deadliest shootouts in 1986, told Fox News something similar back in February.

"If [an officer] has the authority to take you into custody, that's it -- the litigation comes afterwards," he said. "So just comply with law enforcement. The time to argue is not when you're getting the ticket, it's afterwards when things, are off the street, into a courtroom, into a review scenario."